Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Even I feel that this blog is getting picture-heavy and less text-heavy. Okay, going to put in more effort!

I have VERY high expectations for myself for this quarter with regards to work. I'm supporting new hiring managers, new teams, new requisitions, and have a new manager myself. I set the bar super high so that I can reward myself rightfully with a good rest at the end of the year.

There is so much going on at work these seven weeks that I come home to get a few hours of sleep before heading to the office again. There are times when I tell myself it's not worth so much time and effort and there is nothing to prove to anyone. Then again, it's really myself that I want to prove myself to.

I am pushing myself to change bad situation at work around and I think my efforts are paying off. I got a lovely thank-you email from a tough hiring manager and it brought such a big smile to my face. There is still a lot to do and I want to present myself an outstanding report card to end 2014 on a bang!

Despite pulling daily 12-16 hour shifts, I'm delights to say that I have forgotten all about having fun. I still work on getting my exercise on the dance floor on a bi-weekly basis. One night of fun is something I allow myself to indulge in. And god knows I need that exercise for all the McDonald's and Coke I am already spoiling myself with.

So without spilling too much about work (and thereby not getting into trouble with the PR and Legal teams), I have said too much about work. ;)

Sunday, 16 November 2014

The Event: A Matrimony
The Bride: Jacqueline aka Jac
The Groom: Kelvin
The Bridesmaid: Wynnii

The Day and Day After:
5am Woke up to get ready to go to Jac's house
6.30am Arrived at Jac's house
7.20am Kelvin's groom party arrived at Jac's house for gatecrashing and to pick up bride
9am Arrived at Kelvin's house for couple's tea ceremony for his family
10.30am Went for outdoor photoshoot with the wedding party
1pm Arrived back at Jac's house for couple's tea ceremony for her family
2.45pm Left Jac's house to head over to wedding dinner hotel
3.45pm Checked in on behalf of Ying to take a nap in her room
5.30pm Woke up from nap to get ready to attend couple's wedding solemnisation
6pm Fulfilled unannounced wedding receptionist duties
8pm Started enjoying wedding dinner
8.30pm Took photos with Chantel and Joey (Chantel is three now!)
11pm Friends of newlyweds gathered in bridal suite for more merry making
1.35am Left bridal suite
1.55am Arrived at Pan Pacific hotel to meet friends for a night of dancing @ Bang Bang
5am Got into taxi to make 30km trip to home

May the newlyweds be blessed with many years of blissful and happy moments.

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Wow, six weeks in San Francisco went past just like that. Noooo! Super sad to leave the amazing city and its people but super excited to head home! Last stop, a friend's wedding in Lebanon before I go back to my very missed chilli crab.

Monday, 22 September 2014

Two weeks have flown by for me as a #gps and it's has been nothing short of amazing during my time here in MTV! EVERYONE on the Marketing Recruitment team is super welcoming and makes me feel like I'm part of the team forever already. I honestly felt like I'm a Noogler all over again and am constantly being wowed.

Highlights from very Sunny MTVWORK- Set up 1:1 with the team and was delighted to know each of them on a more personal note.- My host manager Gemma is awesome! She wanted to make sure I am able to meet as many people as possible, experience a new working environment, and work on interesting projects and at the same time, have a fun time here. - Consolidated data on pain points/challenges and corresponding best practices from for a Talent Obsession project. This project will focus on four major areas around Sourcing and Talent Mapping, Candidate sharing, Candidate Engagement, Tracking of target companies, key players, trends. - Attended Channels Experience Roadshow to learn more about tips and tricks on providing that magical candidate and Googler experience. - Met a teammate in MTV and she introduced me to the MTV Programs team. It's great to meet team members F2F always. - First Offer Accept for a GBO packet I worked on before I came over!

FUN- Gemma invited me to watch Star Trek in the Google field/park during movie night. It was a windy chilly night but the fresh kettle corn, pizza, corn dog makes it worth it. - I got my Google cardboard! The distribution queue went from CL3 to CL5 in Critt! - I finally watched TGIF in the same timezone as MTV and am able to hear the live questions. Woohoo~- I went to the infamous building 50 (SportsPage) near campus.

Thank you to everyone for letting me come on this eye-opening adventure!﻿

30 Aug 2014

It has been another amazing week as a #gps!

WORK- MAJOR HIGHLIGHT! Attended Q3 People Ops All Hands in person at Charlie's Cafe and watching all the charismatic speakers up on stage is refreshing! During APAC All Hands back home, all the speakers would be presenting from a conference a room and the atmosphere is definitely different.- Synced with Jeff on lending sourcing assistance to his Enterprise Cloud Marketing role. First time working on roles in Enterprise space @ Google - you learn something new everyday. Yay~ - Worked on first deck draft for Talent Obsession Project (am really excited about presenting this to the team!). This is something I'd like to bring back to APAC for use as well.- Attended a Staffing Comp Training and was happy to relearn things about Google's compensation philosophy and programs; resources and guidelines for creating comp and transfer offers; best practices for working with Comp; and handling candidate objections. ​- Attended a demo for a vendor Referral Tool with Iva. Interesting concept and may be worth pursuing. - It's important to incorporate well-being activities during work hours. Ice cream makes me happy and ice cream sandwich mid-day makes me super happy!​

FUN- Finally had the honors of meeting the giant Android outside building 44!- Rode on my first gRide from Kitchen Sync to CL5. Thanks, Gemma, Jill and Cara for the encouragement and patience! :)- Watched a live Giant's game at the gorgeous AT&T stadium with Edwin. I love the atmosphere of live games~- Always great to see familiar faces and names again Rey,Naoki,Max,Alex,Jim, Seth,Charlie,Bethany,Christy, Hilary, Carolyn, Oscar Li, Tim, Karthik, Jacquie, Kathleen, Ka

Not sure how I would classify the following but I survived an earthquake that happened 3.20AM on Sunday morning! ;)

As much as I am enjoying this enriching trip to MTV, I'm also missing everyone back in APAC!﻿

20 Sept 2014

I have been delaying clicking "Share" on this post because it'll make the end of my rotation a reality. It's a bittersweet goodbye - I am sad to leave this amazing team behind but I'm also super excited to go back into my recent new Programs Staffing role. There is so much I want to and can achieve in my new role!

And I present this week's highlight:WORK- Completed self assessment for perf. Thanks in advance to my peer reviewers for spending time on giving me feedback. :)- Presented preview of Talent Obsession project at One Americas GBO Staffing. Thanks, Ian, for giving me the opportunity!- Delivered another session of Talent Obsession training and made a recording of it for future use- Shared deck and/or video with two other teams to potentially incorporate into their trainings for Nooglers- Attended TGIF live! I was in the third row and less than 10 feet from Larry and Sergey and felt very star-struck!- Recorded a video with Lisa and Simone to highlight my rotation experience so they can use it as a marketing tool for the upcoming Q1 application cycle

FUN- Made (with love) potted plants for everyone who made my MTV experience a beyond magical one- Turned up for Le Diner en Blanc at the Embarcadero in a white faux fur coat (very proud that I can still be the fashionista while travelling) - Received a very warm AND stylish SF hoodie gift from Jennifer- Ate a delicious homecooked meal made by Gemma and her husband, Nick- Threw a farewell pool party for myself and felt very loved by everyone who showed up

Reflecting on these past six weeks, I have pushed myself professionally and personally to new frontiers, and I cannot ask for a more welcoming team and an enriching time! Thank you everyone who made this happen.

Carpe diem! :)

To summarise my #gps experience, here is a Q&A which I did with Lisa and Simone this morning.Q. Your name, your original role and location, how long you’ve been at Google, and your rotation role and locationA. Hi, I'm Wynnii from the Singapore office. I'm now in MTV on my rotation with the Marketing Recruitment team. I have been Google for 3½ years and spent most of that time with the G&A recruiting team before my recent transfer to the Programs Staffing team.

Q. What surprised you the most about your experience?A. I am almost sure everyone is going to say the same time - what surprised me the most is how time flies! I cannot believe it’s my last week of my rotation and there is still so much I want to learn from the team.

Q. Considering you already had Staffing experience coming into your rotation, were there any challenges?A. I have been working on staffing-related projects and not end-to-end recruitment, so it’s something different from what my daily job is like back in APAC. I was working on a training deck and it took so much effort to perfect the message and format. My host manager, Gemma, gave plenty of advice on making the deck succinct and effective. Now, I found new found respect for all the teams and people who are creating decks, be it for training, TGIF, all-hands, or other purposes.

Q. How about coming from APAC to MTV?A. It's my first time to MTV and for the first week I was here, I felt like a Noogler all over again. I had no idea where the meeting rooms, buildings, teams and cafes are, and the size of campus was daunting. I had to rely heavily on gRide to get everywhere. Also, my phone breaking down the first week I arrived didn’t help because I couldn’t contact anyone when I’m not on campus or use GPS to navigate my way. Having said that, once I got my orientation, it was great fun to discover different pockets of campus.

Q. What is one valuable takeaway from your experience?A. The rotation is a valuable opportunity for me to work with a new team in a different location. It opened the doors for me to experience new processes, team dynamics, working environment, office culture, and most importantly, a chance to meet more incredible Googlers.

Q. What advice would you give to someone who is interested in applying?A. I’d give 2 pieces of advice. #1 is to make sure you speak to your host manager a few times before the rotation to get to know each other. Also, do make an effort to understand the project scope and do preparation work prior to arriving. This is because 6 weeks is not a very long time and you want to make sure you can dive straight into the projects or your assigned work very quickly.

#2 would be if you don’t know anyone in your host office, either ask for introductions from others, or be brave and reach to the random people in your host office before you arrive. I found it helpful that I have met a bunch of Googlers who had visited Singapore office previously and they introduced me to more people in MTV. That really helped me to find my way around here.﻿

Friday, 12 September 2014

When in San Francisco, do as San Franciscans do. So I attended Le Diner en Blanc in my white faux fur coat! Being surrounded with some of my closest friends in San Francisco, the evening was gorgeous with the sun setting down on the Embarcadero. Biggest kisses to Kelly who got us tickets! xx

When I checked my particulars on the hospital admission slip yesterday, I got the rudest shock yet from my age. Am I really that old?! Usually, it's just stating your DOB so I don't think about the number. I mean I know my age but I didn't think it was that big a number! I honestly didn't expect myself to give myself such a sense of stupefaction. Hey, it's all in the head right!

Monday, 9 June 2014

I missed getting tickets to her 12th June concert (there really wasn't a chance for me to compete with her million fans), and I jumped on a wagon when a friendly invitation came after the announcement for the added 9th June show. As we all already know, I love trashy pop and attending concerts, so this gig is right up my alley.

Funny thing was the moshpit was pretty empty and thus, I see the organisers sending fans into the moshpit 20 min before the show started. If I were younger, I'd jumped at the chance to wave my 10" lightstick in Taylor's face. Yes, the lightsticks were long enough for me to poke her enviously-long legs. But I digress.

I'm sure you'd be able to read a million reviews about the concert so all I wanna say is belting 13 songs and blazing six costume changes within 90-min, Taylor Swift painted the town red and did an amazing job at bringing the house down!

Friday, 6 June 2014

A few colleagues and I went for dinner at Tsukado Nojo for its famous collagen hot pot dinner aka Tsukado Nojo Bijin Nabe (塚田農場 美人鍋) @ Chinatown Point. I haven't even heard about this famous hot pot meal till three weeks ago when my colleague came back from lunch to say she has placed a reservation for 6 of us. I had thought they just wanted to get out of the office to have a nicer lunch (well, nicer than our already very nice office lunch).

When I told Joey a few days ago that I'm going to Tsukado Nojo for dinner and she exclaimed, "Wow! How did you get a reservation?" after telling me that it's usually an hour long wait. I was honestly taken aback and it definitely piqued my attention to the upcoming dinner.

When we arrived at the restaurant, there was no queue and I was suspicious of this long queue I have been informed of. When the collagen pot was served, I didn't know what to make of the pale yellow gelatin-like substance that's piled up in the center. When the gelatin melted slowly to become the soup base, I eagerly await to sink my teeth into the ingredients that was delicately arranged on the pot by the waitress.

Within 30-minutes into the dinner, I saw a snaking queue outside and I was convinced about the insane crowd at this place. This place is so crowded that every table is allowed 45 min dining time and as soon as the 40-min mark is nearing, the waitress comes around to "gently" remind you about the end of this quite wonderful experience. We didn't even have time for desserts!

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

When the receptionist at the Hong Kong's office messaged me that I have some flowers delivery, I was puzzled. When I saw the huge gorgeous lily-and-rose bouquet waiting on the reception table, I was delightful surprised and couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

小笼包 does it again and surprised me while I'm away from Singapore. He really does a great job at pulling surprises like that. :)

Sunday, 11 May 2014

Two days ago, I came across Sia's Chandelier music video and was introduced to Maddie Ziegler. I found out that she is a dancer on Dance Moms. Oh gosh, I found my new guilty pleasure! Dance Moms is a reality show about the explosive dynamic relationships between the mums of a group of talent young dancers and the egomaniac dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller. Truth be told, the show is uber ridiculous, controversial, over-the-top and obviously abusive - who shouts at children at the top of their voices constantly and have shouting matches in front of a group of impressionable young girls?!

But I cannot stop watching! Oops!

P/S: I have been reading amazing things about Maddie's dance in the music video online. My personal opinion is that while there is no doubt Maddie is a technically strong and emotionally versatile dancer, I cannot help but being reminded of Ju-on in the video. The way she moves, the way she looks, the way she stares into the camera, the way she crawls, everything...

PPS: It is Mother's Day today. I guess I should be grateful to mum that I was never forced to take dance lessons while I was a child!

Update: Midway through Season 2, I begin to see an emerging pattern - hysterical dance teacher, fighting dance mums, crying little girls and then some trophies. Honestly, it's beginning to get boring and it's within a weekend. Yawns...

Today marks the nth birthday of my best friend, Lucias Kam! As we each embark on our own journeys and don't keep in touch as often as we used to, I know he's happily enjoying his work and time with his significant other.